Pit III ground level

   After the destruction of the first Pit, a new G.I. Joe headquarters facility was planned. Built beneath a U.S. Army supply depot in the Southern Utah desert, the new facility was situated to avoid some problems with the site of the original Pit. The Fort Wadsworth site proved too dangerous to personnel and Staten Island residents when Cobra uncovered its location. Thus, a depot in the desert was chosen due to its relative isolation.

    The new base was built beneath the U.S. Army Chaplain's Assistants Supply Depot in Utah's Escalante Desert. Anyone who passed by the facility saw little more than a cluster of three quonset huts inside a barbed wire fence. A small number of Joes usually inhabited the huts to maintain the illusion of a working supply depot. The new base lacked the huge vehicle lifts and elevators of the old Pit, and was accessible through a stairway beneath a trap door in the center quonset hut. The trap door was often covered by a rug and guarded by the Joe member Spirit, who sometimes sat on the rug and meditated. The final construction stages of the new Pit were completed by the Joes themselves. When the facility was finished, the older Joes dubbed it "Pit III," with a feeling of nostalgia for their original base.

Pit III staging level

    The wide open spaces of the desert allowed for an even more ingenious method of getting vehicles and heavy equipment above ground than the original base. Pit III's first level held the main staging area. Larger than the first Pit's staging area, it could hold many of the Joes' large vehicles and was even vast enough to accomodate the space shuttle Defiant and it's crawler launch vehicle. At one end of the level was a huge set of sliding blast doors. When the doors opened, a set of hydraulic lifts lowered a ramp which was an artificial segment of the desert floor above. The ramp allowed vehicles of all sizes to exit and enter the Pit leaving no trace of the ramp after its use. This also allowed the Joes to use the desert as a launch site for the Defiant. The rest of the base's four levels included operations and supply, an armory, living quarters and a mess hall. Like the Joes' previous headquarters, the base was heavily armored and self-sustaining for long periods of time. The desert around the base was often patrolled by small groups of Joes.

    Unfortunately, the Pit III was a target of Cobra as much as the original Pit. Cobra technicians took note of spy satellite images that showed a small base in the desert where more people entered and exited a quonset hut than could be comfortably quartered inside. Suspicious of the site, Serpentor sent Dr. Mindbender's cybernetically enhanced Star-Viper, who had reflexes and infiltration skills far beyond the average person. The Star-Viper found his way into Pit III and stole a top secret electronic "black box" from the Defiant's computer system. He would have escaped easily that night, but he interrupted a tender moment between Flint and Lady Jaye. The Joes sent the few armored vehicles they had above ground after the Star-Viper, but he escaped. The black box eventually forced the Joes into the Cobra Island civil war.

Pit III vehicle ramp

    Some time later, Dr. Mindbender sent out an assault force to the location of the Pit. The Joes, however, had been tipped off. When Cobra arrived and destroyed the quonset huts, all they found beneath them was solid desert. The Joes had simply moved the huts a mile across the desert, keeping the Pit hidden under the desert floor. The Cobra troops, led by a humiliated and confused Dr. Mindbender, retreated back to Cobra Island.

    A less conspicuous attempt to infiltrate the base occurred after Zarana brainwashed Joe team members Clutch and Rock & Roll while they were held in the Cobra-controlled town of Broca Beach. The two seemingly normal Joes made it back to the team and were allowed into the Pit. Once there, their programming was activated, which was supposed to cause them to go on a violent rampage through the base. The Joes were spared from the incident when Clutch and Rock & Roll's own nature would not allow them to become murderers and overrode the brainwashing. A long time later, Cobra Commander staged another assault on the Pit, but was repelled by the G.I. Joe team.

    Unlike its predecessors, Pit III was not destroyed, but simply closed after the G.I. Joe team was disbanded in the wake of Cobra's supposed abandoning of the United States. Most of the active Joes attended a ceremony to "retire the colors", folding up the base's American flag for one last time. Afterward, the gates were locked and "no trespassing" signs were hung up to keep people away. After briefly being used it to stage one final mission, Pit III was never used by the Joe team again. Years later, the G.I. Joe team was reinstated by the military but moved on to another base which would also be dubbed "the Pit".


   Unlike Fort Wadsworth, the site of the first Pit, the Chaplain's Assistants Supply Depot never existed, though the Escalante Desert does exist, just northwest of Ceder City, Utah. There is also a town and other sites named Escalante in the area.

    In 1999, a new G.I. Joe series was to be released by the now defunct Bench Press Studios. The new series would have been written by Larry Hama and would have used the Pit III as the team's headquarters. Hama's proposal for the series included a scene when a group of Joes returned to the base. The series was never produced, but Hama's scene was depicted in a few pages of artwork by penciler Ron Lim, which can be seen here.